Incubators Anonymous

[zxsaaaw]

Your eggs are probably right on time. If temps are just a little low, they can be a couple days late. If the eggs are responding to sound, then all is well. They should start pipping soon. Often you can't see the tiny pips. It may only be a tiny hairline scratch on the surface that can only be seen when light shines from just the right angle..... or the pip could be positioned away from your viewing window and impossible to see. If you "hear" your eggs peeping, then you know they're pipped &/or zipping.

Also, after an egg pips, the chicks rests for a very long time. Mine can wait 12-24 hrs before they start zipping, so when I spot the 1st pip, I know that chicks are coming in the next day. Although I saw 3 pips this morning, I still have no chicks. I might have a chick or 2 tonight, but it looks like tomorrow morning will be the big excitement. (i'm up to 5 pips now, and someone is peeping.)

Thank you so much for your reassurance!! This forum seems to be half and half with people that are sure any little touch will kill a chick, and others who seem more confident in chicks' ability to survive if they are strong enough. I really appreciate your response! I think I'm panicking myself and you gave me a much needed reality check. I will update on the status of the chicks - right now I keep going to check on them and their responses but I want to let them sleep for now. I've never read about any hairline crack pips but that gives me hope. I like the words 'all is well' though!
Good luck for your hatch, and happy birthday!

 

[Faraday40]

Thank you so much for your reassurance!! This forum seems to be half and half with people that are sure any little touch will kill a chick, and others who seem more confident in chicks' ability to survive if they are strong enough. I really appreciate your response! I think I'm panicking myself and you gave me a much needed reality check. I will update on the status of the chicks - right now I keep going to check on them and their responses but I want to let them sleep for now. I've never read about any hairline crack pips but that gives me hope. I like the words 'all is well' though!
Good luck for your hatch, and happy birthday!

Thanks and You're welcome.

Here's what a pip looks like:
Look at the 6 eggs in the carton. 2 are pipped. Can you find them?

The middle one in the back row is easy to spot. The middle egg in the front row is also pipped. (BTW_ I write on my eggs to track things. The circle is week 1 air cell line & the X is made on day 14 when I like to predict where the chick will pip.... the lowest point of the air cell. The eggs are also labeled with the hen's name & day laid.) These are just for my own fun & tracking - certainly not needed since broody hens can do all of this without any high tech measurements. I like to track and adjust little things to get that perfect 100% hatch.... or as close as I can get.

Hatching advice: Keep steady temps (99.5'F for circulated incubators), make sure not to close up all the vents, and be patient. (Don't keep opening the incubator.) Also stop turning around day 18 so the chick embryo doesn't accidentally slip and lose its place while trying to make that pip.

The humidity can vary during incubation (and will vary due to the weather). The main point of controlling humidity is to make sure the air cell develops (extra water evaporates to make the air cell grow). If humidity is too high during the 1st 18 days, the air cell may be too small, but there's not much you can do about it at the end. For the last few days, it helps to have high humidity to make all those membranes soft. This makes it easier for the chick to hatch out. My incubator is a home made "cooler-bator" so I have to do things manually. I usually do 30-35% humidity for the 1st 18 days and 65-70% (= as high as I can get my incubator) for days 19 until hatch. Of course, most incubators are designed to keep the humidity at a certain level by simply filling up the water trays. If you don't want to worry about monitoring humidity, just follow the manufacturer's advice and your eggs should be fine.



Here are some pics my kids made/edited to explain the process to their classmates:

This was a cute serama chick hatching.

 

[Faraday40]

Tonight I'm enjoying some self-opening presents....
So far we have 2 laced and one lav orp.

 

[Faraday40]

I've never read about any hairline crack pips but that gives me hope.

This is what I mean. These pics were taken only a few seconds apart. In the 1st pic the incubator light is on. The last egg in the back right has a pip but it cannot be seen at all.

This pic is the same view but with a flashlight. That back right egg has a thin hairline pip on its right side.

*Of course there's also a pip on the egg to the left of the newly hatched chick. That one is a bump and can be seen in either lighting.

 

[LilyD]

They can definitely fool us. I have had them go three or four days over too before they even start. I had an incubator full of ducks and was getting ready to empty them out that night. We came home from dinner and there was a duckling in the incubator and a few more pipped as well. Totally unexpected since they were already late by quite a bit.

 

[zxsaaaw]

AAAh guess what!
Yesterday I saw the speckled brown one moving and assumed the other little blue one was not doing too well. Today I came home to a hairline pip in the brown speckled one! The pip has been growing since I have been back. What's more, is that a little chick has been peeping to me! We have been having little conversations of peeping back and forth (even as I write this), and so of course I assume that the energetic speckled egg is answering me. I candled my eggs just now and saw no air cell in the blue egg. What? As I candle, the cheeping increases a ton, I hear a little cracking and I examine the egg: A huge pip with a little breathing beak in the little blue egg!
I thought I was peeping to the wrong chick!

 

[LilyD]

Sounds like in a little while you will be holding some new babies. <3

 

[Faraday40]

Last few eggs remain in the incubator - one is zipping now. The others may not hatch, but it doesn't hurt to keep the incubator plugged in for another day or 2.

I started moving some chicks in with their mamas today. (2 whites & a black went in last night and were already bonded by this morning. I didn't get their pics)

Here are 3 seramas (1 white, 1 golden chipmunk, & 1 light chipmunk)

5 silver laced (the 2 white recessive were also from my SLO group)

3 black/lav split orps (one blk was already with mama)

One blue orp

and
3 lav orps

 

[zxsaaaw]

Last few eggs remain in the incubator - one is zipping now. The others may not hatch, but it doesn't hurt to keep the incubator plugged in for another day or 2.

I started moving some chicks in with their mamas today. (2 whites & a black went in last night and were already bonded by this morning. I didn't get their pics)

Sadly the speckled egg didn't make it. It was zipping then hadn't moved for 24 hours, so I picked away some shell (hit no veins at all) and saw a still, open beak. I left it for a couple minutes then I opened up the egg again fully, to find a stiff, dead chick :'(. I tried CPR but it had been dead for a while. The little blue egg chick however is happy and lively. She is a little girl (Crested Legbar). My staggered hatch means that hopefully she will have some siblings in 2 days! There are 5 potential eggs, 3 of which were moving when I candled.

 

[LilyD]

Sadly the speckled egg didn't make it. It was zipping then hadn't moved for 24 hours, so I picked away some shell (hit no veins at all) and saw a still, open beak. I left it for a couple minutes then I opened up the egg again fully, to find a stiff, dead chick :'(. I tried CPR but it had been dead for a while. The little blue egg chick however is happy and lively. She is a little girl (Crested Legbar). My staggered hatch means that hopefully she will have some siblings in 2 days! There are 5 potential eggs, 3 of which were moving when I candled.

So sorry you lost one of your babies, but glad for your little girl. Fingers crossed the others hatch well.